When we last saw Carol (Melissa McBride) in The Walking Dead’s season nine finale, she was grieving the loss of her and Ezekiel’s (Khary Payton) son, Henry (Matt Lintz) who was seen on the pike at the hands of the Whisperers. Shortly after, she grew distant from her husband, Ezekiel, and the two eventually split up. As we come to find out in the season 10 premiere episode, Carol was away at sea while the other groups spent their days in training. 

Carol returns to Oceanside and is reunited with her best friend, Daryl (Norman Reedus), who wants her to stay back instead of taking off again. The relationship between the two is looked at closer as the episode hinted at a possible romance for Daryl and newcomer, Connie (Lauren Ridloff). For so many seasons, fans hoped for a Carol and Daryl relationship to spark up, but the direction seems to have changed.

“I think Connie, he sees her as an equal. She’s an asset, she’s a badass,” Reedus said. “There’s lots of times Daryl’s like, ‘I’m gonna head this way,’ and she’s like, ‘I’m coming with you.’ I’m like, ‘No, you’re not,’ she’s like, ‘Watch me.’ And I like seeing that character branch out and put in the effort to be able to communicate with her. I think that’s really cool.”

Regarding his friendship with Carol, Reedus let fans know that there will be a lot of moments seen between the two. “If you look at all the things that have happened to Carol, she’s lost so much, you know? And she’s become very damaged because of it,” Reedus said. “So there’s a lot of that kind of relationship this year.”

Greg Nicotero, who directed the premiere episode, spoke about the intense staredown between Alpha and Carol at the end of the episode. “I love that scene between the two of them because it’s the calm before the storm. As soon as she lays eyes on Alpha at the end, you know all of that is gone,” Nicotero said. “But I really love how comfortable the two of them are together. And Daryl’s sort of priming her for a fight. He’s like, ‘Listen, we found a mask. And we got some scouts going out, are you interested?’ And she’s like, ‘Nope, I’m not interested.’ She doesn’t want to go there. And she was completely fine not going there until she lays eyes on Alpha. And then it’s like, ‘Well, now I got to go there.’”

Watch new episodes of The Walking Dead on Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.